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12th-13th Century Khmer Bayon Standing Shiva browse these categories for related items... All Items: Antiques:Regional Art:Asian:Southeast Asian:Sculpture: Pre 1492: item # 888364 Please refer to our stock # 1110 when inquiring.
Boran Asian Art Grays, 1-7 Davies Mews, Mayfair, London, W1 0044 (0)795 422 8735 Guest Book Price On Request |
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Details: A rare and attractive example of a finely cast Khmer Bayon period image of a bearded Shiva. This powerful looking Shiva is standing straight legged on a small square base adorned with a diadem, a pectoral, earrings, armbands, bracelets, anklets, and an ornate lavish belt arranged around a short sampot can kpin with a small butterfly bow on the back, the traditional garb of a Khmer male aristocrat. His face is well modeled with an attractive beard that helps identify him as Shiva along with his usual attributes of his third eye on his forehead, a trident or trisula held in his left hand, and a rosary in his right hand. His hair is arranged in a cylindrical Jata adorned with the symbol Om in raised relief. The beard and the Om symbol could point to this being an image of Shiva portrayed as a Yogin master. This Bayon image of Shiva is very similar in its modeling to both the stone and bronze Cosmic Avalokiteshvara images of the same period. The manner of his attire, the modeling of his body, and particularly his powerful legs are strikingly similar. Both Woodward and Bunker tend to date the style of these pieces to the late 12th or early 13th centuries. In 1181 the Pious Buddhist Jayavarman VII was crowned king after successfully defeating the neighbouring Chams after four years of constant conflict. He ushered in a radical period of social and political reform. Buddhism for the first time in Khmer history became the official state religion and an intense building program began, which resulted in some of the most grandiose of all the Khmer complexes such as Angkor Thom, Preah Khan and the iconic Bayon. Many Buddhist images where commissioned in stone and bronze with an emphasis on the pious inner aspects of each deity. The dynamic simple sensuality of the 11th century Banteay Srei and Baphuon period torsos was gone and the awe inspiring aristocratic Angkor Wat period images replaced by sculpture that put most of its emphasis in the facial expression of an image designed specifically to not only suppress physical desire, but more importantly to convey the contentment and peaceful inner purity that Jayavarman so piously aspired to. The evidence of Hindu bronzes, such as this Shiva cast in the reign of such a pious Buddhist king suggest a religious cosmopolitan tolerance and blend at Angkor. Under Jayavarman VII the Hindu cults did not disappear but continued to practice their beliefs as the existence of many well documented Hindu Bayon style images are testament to. This blend of religious tolerance was to end with the crowning of Jayavarman VIII in 1243, a fervent Shivaite ruler in the old mold, who ambitiously embarked on a program to either destroy every Buddhist image he could find or transform it into a Shivaite one. Age: Late 12th-13th Century. Height: On base 19.5 cm, off base 17 cm.
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